Psychotherapy and Social Change: Mick Cooper on Counseling, Pluralism, and Progressive Politics

02/19/25 • 45 min

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mick Cooper is a leading voice in contemporary counseling psychology, known for his work at the intersection of psychotherapy and social change. A Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of Roehampton in the UK, Dr. Cooper is both a researcher and a practicing therapist, exploring how psychotherapeutic principles can contribute to broader political and societal transformation.

As a co-developer of the pluralistic approach to therapy, Dr. Cooper has been instrumental in advancing a model that prioritizes shared decision-making, client preferences, and integrative therapeutic practice. He serves as Acting Director of the Centre for Research in Psychological Wellbeing (CREW) and is an active member of the Therapy and Social Change Network (TaSC). His research focuses on humanistic and existential therapies, client engagement, and the role of psychotherapy in fostering personal and collective agency.

Dr. Cooper’s latest book, Psychology at the Heart of Social Change: Developing a Progressive Vision for Society,examines how psychological theory and practice can be leveraged to create a more equitable world.

In this interview, he speaks with Mad in America’s Javier Rizo about the intersections of therapy and politics, the importance of pluralism in mental health care, and the future of counseling psychology as a force for progressive change.

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To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850

Previous Episode

All Real Living Is Meeting - In Conversation With Brent Robbins - Part 2

Brent Dean Robbins is a psychologist, scholar, and all-around thoughtful human whose work has profoundly shaped existential and humanistic psychology.

He is one of those rare thinkers who makes psychology feel alive—not just a collection of theories and data, but a field full of urgent, deeply human questions. He’s a professor of psychology and the director of the Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology program at Point Park University, where he’s helped create one of the most distinctive training programs in the country. He earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Duquesne University—home to some of the most beautifully dense phenomenological work you'll ever have to read twice—and is a licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania.

In this two-part conversation, we’ll explore Brent’s career—from his early work critiquing the overmedication of children to his scholarship on metabletics and cultural therapeutics. We’ll also discuss how he’s navigating his current health journey and cancer diagnosis as an existential psychologist and his hopes for the future of the field—how we might reimagine mental health care in ways that embrace the messy, wondrous, irreducible nature of being human.

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To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850

Next Episode

“Dad, Something's Not Right. I Need Help”- Richard Fee on the Dangers of Adderall

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast. My name is Brooke Siem, and I’m the author of May Cause Side Effects. Today, I’m here with Rick Fee, president of the Richard Fee Foundation.

Rick joins us to talk about his son, Richard Fee and his encounter with psychiatric drugs, most notably Adderall.

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To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: https://pod.link/1212789850